Buddie Fics

Basketball Court

"How's he feeling?" Maddie asked.

"So Chimney ratted on me then?" Buck replied, shaking his head. He should have known that the incident wouldn't be kept quiet for more than a few hours.

"Of course he told me! And it'll be hard for anyone not to notice when he's on shift with a black eye tomorrow."

"I don't know how he is, we haven't really talked," Buck said, "Besides, he doesn't want to talk to me."

"Buck, it was an accident on a basketball court. He knows you didn't mean it."

"We literally got into a fist fight, Maddie!"

"So...you're both stubborn men," Maddie retorted, "You can't shut out your best friend over a game."

Buck shook his head at that.

"It's not that simple, Mads." he whispered.

Chimney must not have told her everything, then. Because the fight that happened wasn't just some hot-headed, pointless brawl. The muddled feeling in his chest of guilt, confusion, heartache wasn't something that could be caused by some lousy pickup game at the Y on a Tuesday afternoon. But he didn't think he had the words to explain that to Maddie, much less himself.

"Why don't you tell me what happened and what's so complicated, then?" Maddie asked. "Let me help you fix it."

Buck loosed a sigh, "Okay."

***

"If you think you can beat me, you're wrong. I spent most of my life playing street ball at the park. You got nothing on me," Eddie bluffed as he smoothly dribbled a basketball behind his back.

"Oh, really? I see your street ball and raise you two seasons on the varsity team," Buck replied as he tried to snatch the ball from Eddie.

The banter continued as they worked their way up and down their half of the basketball court. The warm L.A. air was filled with the chaotic and joyful yells of firefighters. It was a beautiful day off for the 118, so several members of the department decided to take advantage of the weather and meet at the court down the street from the station. They had been at it for over an hour, and the sun was starting to cast a golden-hour glow as it sank.

Ravi, Chimney, and several others were engaged in an intense 3 versus 3 battle for a week's worth of relief from dish duty at the station. Buck and Eddie had gravitated into their own game before the chaos, drawing away to themselves like they so often did.

Sweat glistened on both of them, and Buck couldn't help but noticed the way that Eddie's beginning of summer tan glowed. He was doing a lot of that lately, the noticing. Every moment that he spent with the man was filled with some sort of awe for him. The way he laughed at Chimney's awful dad jokes. The messiness of his helmet hair after a long call. The softness in his voice when Christopher had a bad day.

They moved more like they were dancing than playing. It was funny how cluelessly in sync they were.

It scared him, this magnetism that had always been present between them. Though it had so quietly manifested shortly after Eddie joined the 118, it had started to consume him since the shooting. With suppression being Buck's specialty, he decided to push down those hints of butterflies as far as he could and never allow them to surface. He didn't even allow himself to acknowledge or name it. Eddie was too important to him to address his own fucked up feelings, or even his sexuality for that matter.